Unmanned, Underwater and Unprecedented

AUVSI& ONR's 10th Annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Student Competition

San Diego - July 13-15, 2007

On Saturday, July 14, more than 200 students from 28 schools worldwide will plunge months of hard work to the bottom of a simulated ocean during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the U.S. Office of Naval Research's 10th Annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Student Competition. Hosted by AUVSI and ONR, a record number of the brightest engineering minds for the future of underwater vehicle technologies will come together at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in Point Loma, CA to compete for up to $20,000 in cash prizes.

A pirate themed course has been created for the 2007 competition in SSC San Diego's historic, 40 foot deep Transducer Evaluation Center (TRANSDEC) Pool. To qualify for the competition, each team must design and build an AUV capable of navigating realistic underwater missions; for the competition, those missions include underwater docking, marking a precise location, and recovering simulated undersea treasure.

Open to the public and free of charge, spectators are invited to watch as students prepare their vehicles and take on the challenging underwater course. The event schedule is: Saturday, July 14 - 8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m
Sunday, July 15 - 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

A Media Open House will take place on Friday, July 13 at 10:00 a.m. at the TRANSDEC pool and will include exhibits and demonstrations of current robotic technologies. The TRANSDEC pool is located in Point Loma at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego. If you would like to attend the open house please RSVP to SSC San Diego Public Affairs Office, Ed Budzyna (619-553-2725) or Joanne Newton (619-553-2727)

The following roster of participants includes two high school teams, one home school team, and 25 collegiate teams from the U.S., Canada, Japan and India:

Amador Valley High School Robotics Club
Cornell University
Delhi College of Engineering
Duke University
Ecole de Technologie Superieure
Georgia Tech
Kyushu Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
North Carolina State University
Northwest AUV Fellowship
Pacific Nautilus San Diego City College
San Diego iBotics AUV
Smurphs Pair
Southern Methodist University
Southern Polytechnic State University
United States Naval Academy
University of Central Florida
University of Colorado at Denver
University of DeVry Calgary
University of Florida
University of Maryland
University of Ottawa
University of Rhode Island
University of Southern California
University of Texas at Dallas
University of Toronto
University of Victoria
Virginia Tech

Major sponsors of this competition are AUVSI and ONR. Corporate support comes from Naval Undersea Warfare Center - Newport, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Boeing Marine Systems, Lockheed Martin MS2, Teledyne RD Instruments, DeepSea Power & Light, SeaBotix, Tachyon Networks and Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is the world's largest non-profit organization devoted exclusively to advancing the unmanned systems community. AUVSI's 5,000 members worldwide come from government organizations, industry and academia. AUVSI is committed to fostering, developing, and promoting unmanned systems and related technologies.

What is an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)?
AUVs are unmanned, self sufficient, robotic vehicles capable of carrying out a number of underwater missions independent of any external control by an operator. AUVs carry sensors and navigate autonomously for missions such as seafloor mapping for the oil and gas industries, inspecting pipelines, laying underwater cables, delivering equipment to remote destinations, locating mines for the military, measuring ocean water characteristics, and facilitating detailed scientific research of the ocean and the ocean floor. An AUV is programmed to sense its surroundings and to follow a set of instructions including: guidance and navigation between geographic positions, obstacle avoidance, and equipment breakdown resolution. Students participating in the AUV competition strive to create vehicles capable of completing some of these real-world missions.

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com